Port Hawkesbury memorial a shining example of community co-operation

PORT HAWKESBURY — It stands not only as a testament to honour fallen men and women of war but also a model example of community co-operation.

The Port Hawkesbury Veterans Memorial Park represents a culmination of countless volunteer hours by a core committee, along with contributions from a host of community business and government agencies from all three levels.

"We wish to thank all who have given so generously, donated, worked and supported us to make all this possible," said Belle MacIntyre, treasurer of the Port Hawkesbury Veterans Memorial Park Society.

Located on Reeves Street, the park is a memorial to the men and women who served their country in war and conflict from Inverness, Richmond, Guysborough and Antigonish counties, along with the Town of Port Hawkesbury.

A service for Remembrance Day is scheduled to begin at the park Tuesday at 10:55 a.m.

MacIntyre said the park evolved from the town's first war memorial, erected in the 1930s by the mayor, A. J. Langley, who paid for the tribute himself.

The first memorial honoured those from the First World War.

"A second memorial, the Port Hawkesbury cenotaph, was erected by the town following the Second World War and was inscribed to veterans from both wars," said MacIntyre, adding it was moved from Granville Street to Reeves Street in the late 1970s.

The cenotaph shared its site with a former vocational school, and after the school closed, a group of interested veterans and others seized the opportunity to begin lobbying for a new and expanded memorial site.

Negotiations between the town and the province produced a permanent deed to the site.

MacIntyre said through a grant from federal Veterans Affairs, the group was able to erect a third tower representing those who served overseas in Korea, peacekeeping efforts, along with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2008, MacIntyre said, veteran Belmont Shannon began leading the charge of rename the park and install new features. This led to the formation of the memorial park society.

For MacIntyre and others, it has been a steady drive ever since to secure funding and other resources to turn the park into the unique memorial it is today.

Statues, flag poles, trees, benches, bricks, flowers, monuments, and a host of other features, were all funded by community individuals, groups, business and other agencies, including students from local schools and the Nova Scotia Community College.

MacIntyre said to date there are now 9,220 names listed on the panels representing both living and deceased service men and women from the surrounding counties.